Madison Grant Quotes
Race feeling may be called prejudice by those whose careers are cramped by it, but it is a natural antipathy which serves to maintain the purity of type. The unfortunate fact that nearly all species of men interbreed freely leaves us no choice in the matter. Either the races must be kept apart by artificial devices of this sort, or else they ultimately amalgamate, and in the offspring the more generalized or lower type prevails
This book was the first popular attempt to spread the eugenics concept. Is was translated into German in 1925 and unfortunately read by Adolf Hitler who sent Grant a complimentary letter. See {603544} and {602054}
Madison Grant, 1865-1937, Attorney and Amateur Scientist, Co-Founder of the New York Zoological Society, The Passing of the Great Race, 1916
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This book was the first popular attempt to spread the eugenics concept. Is was translated into German in 1925 and unfortunately read by Adolf Hitler who sent Grant a complimentary letter. See {603544}
It is ironic that Hitler obtained part of his sick philosophy from an American writer. Grant was advocating forced sterilization of mental defectives. However, in the context of Germany’s history of racism and anti-Semitism, Hitler carried the notion to its ultimate extreme. See {602054}
Bilbo was one of the worst racists who ever served in the Congress.
Bilbo was one of the worst racists who ever served in the Congress.
This classic quotation illustrates several things. First, the degree of racism that existed in 1944 in West Virginia. Second, not how young Robert Byrd immediately leaped from the possibility of integrating our fighting forces to interracial sex. That has been typical of white racism in America—a preoccupation with race and sex. Last, Byrd who became a member of the KKK, completely changed his mind over the year and ended up supporting the things that, as a youth were worse than the demise of the nation. He matured and grew on the race issue as much of the country did and ended as a strong supporter of equality and civil rights—including affirmative action.
Bilbo was one of the worst racists who ever served in the Congress.
For Pitt and her wing, despite her liberality in other areas, racial purity was a part of nationalism, and miscegenation was “repulsive” and to be avoided by the immigration policy.
There had been vicious assaults on most of the Black workers, when a few Negro welders were hired. The “compromise” was that the Negro workers would be protected from harm but there would be no Blacks in skilled positions. This was despite a huge labor shortage and a critical national need for the ships in the midst of war. Patriotism and the national crisis could not overcome the racism and hatred that existed in America. Northern newspapers pointed out the irony that America was practicing and upholding the racial theories of Hitler and the Nazis.
Utah passed a strong law against interracial sex, but the punishment was not death. See {629151}. Young however saw interracial sex as an extremely serious problem. There was nothing in the Bible or the Book of Mormon that would account for this strong animus, so presumably it was personal. For many years Mormons converted and accepted Blacks, but they could not be priests or leaders of churches. That prohibition was ended and the Modern Mormon Church is free from racism in its doctrine.
There was a huge amount of racial interbreeding during the early slavery times of America. Some was consensual as people will be people, but much was the rape of Black slaves my white masters—a concept that was never considered rape by law as one cannot commit a crime against one’s own property. The result after time was every possible combination of white/black mixture. There were names for many of the combinations: Quadroons were one fourth Negro. Octaroons, one-eighth. During and after reconstruction, for purposes of discriminatory law, who was a Negro? The Louisiana “one drop rule” said that if there was ANY trace of Negro ancestry, that person was a Negro and would be discriminated against. Of course, what would happen was that many mixed race children were light skinned and looked white and many were black and all shades in between. It was relatively easy for the lighter skinned “one drop” Negroes to pass as white especially if the left the state. But if anyone accused them of being Negro, they would have been guilty of committing crimes. Some in modern times have little comprehension of how the white plantation slave owners and other whitrd could condemn their own children to a second class life of vicious discrimination, but that is exactly what they did. The great irony here lies with the modern KKK, Nazi, and other White Supremacy Groups. They still hold to the “one drip rule for their viciousness. However, under the one drop rule, almost all of them would be Negroes if they went back far enough, and ALL ARE BLACK under the one drop rule as with modern DNA and genetic analysis, we now know that every human alive today emanated from a Black woman in Africa.
The logic train from mixed blood to why lynching should not be prohibited is obscure but in filibusters Senators tended to just repeat all of their stump speeches or anything else because they had to keep talking.
Lawrence was one of the very advanced scientists of his time presaging Darwin on a few issues. But he erroneously believed that character and intellect were heretical capabilities. Intellect has been shown to be an inheritable trait to some extent (50-60 percent), but it is not racial per se. And character as we now know is not inherited.
Louis Eugene Walcott
- Born: November 19, 1865
- Died: May 30, 1937
- Nationality: American
- Profession: Lawyer, Writer, Zoologist
Madison Grant was an American lawyer, writer, and zoologist known primarily for his work as a eugenicist and conservationist, an advocate of scientific racism and as one of the leading thinkers and activists of the Progressive Era.
